“The waves were fickle, wanton in their desire to be nothing less than maddeningly unpredictable.” (page 164)So, one and all, we have reached the epilogue’s blog. The end, as always, is bittersweet for me. This is the fourth or fifth preview blogging event I’ve done for a novel, and I humbly think this one was by far the best. Thank you all for stopping by every day and sharing a bit of the madness that is my world.The ocean. It is a siren to the author in me. My characters are drawn to it; my storylines beg to have their scenes played out in its salt air. I have to drag my novels away from its sandy and rocky shores. Why does my imagination yearn for the sea?Why do I?Mental illness is a furious and frenetic fraying of the mind. Imagine a thousand little mice gnawing and unraveling the tightly weaved fibers of your brain. Yes, it’s a disgusting image, but it’s apropos. There is nothing pretty about mental disorder.Perhaps one of the worst things about the disease is its unpredictability. No matter how well you know the condition from which you’re suffering, its course is never clear. The thousand little mice have disturbing minds of their own. They follow no plan, no diagnosis. You never know what part of you they will turn to next… not until you feel their jagged little teeth sink in.The ocean is constant. For all its potential destructiveness, for all its deadliness, its waves may falter but they will never disappear. Gnaw and tear and rip with their yellowed teeth as they will, the mice can never pick apart the will of the sea.Perhaps I drift toward the ocean because I am jealous of it? Perhaps.Or maybe, like a mother’s heartbeat, I lean toward it because I know it will always be there?Perhaps.Well, that’s it, folks. The end of the Cock Fight Dailies. I hope they brought a few unexpected smiles to your world. When the release date for Cock Fight is finalized (later this week or early next week, the publishing gods have told me), I will announce it here on my blog. And to celebrate its release, a lengthy excerpt will also be found here that day.I thank you again for joining me on this previewing journey. I hope you will consider making Cock Fight a part of your library, just as you have made this blog a part of your life.Until next time…Chloe Stowe